the help text makes me wonder if things are less reliable when doing that. Please confirm. thanks

That is concerning, can you please give more detail about which piece of text makes you think it is less reliable to target the UK site using Gixen.

Anyway, to put you mind at rest, I am also a UK resident and I have all my Gixen settings pointing to the UK site, and I've always found them to be just as reliable as the default (.com) settings.

It only really makes a difference, in any case when selecting the links on the snipes page... or only slightly more significantly with Target settings, if you end up in a dispute with a seller over a purchase that was made via Gixen, which local laws apply to the transaction... but practically the Ebay rules for buyers and sellers are pretty much the same in all jurisdictions anyway.

Guest

Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2020 5:27 am Post subject:

I have just signed up to Gixen.
I am confused by this. I am in UK. I hate the way some internal ebay links go to the .com site, whereas most stay on .co.uk site. It's a real pain and I have complained many times as ebay often gets confused with which one I am logged into. I want to target my snipes to UK site, and keep everything on there. Is it safe to change my 'target ebay site' settings to UK? I would prefer that but the help text makes me wonder if things are less reliable when doing that. Please confirm. thanks

Guest

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 3:48 am Post subject:

Cupid wrote:

Yes there is, the first is just an omission in setting the cost, which is also the default operation, the second is an active choice not to allow bidders that have delivery addresses in certain countries and is used much less frequently by Ebay sellers.

Alright, thanks for clearing that up! I'll go for the test bids then.

Cupid

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 3:15 am Post subject:

Anonymous wrote:

Or is there a difference between not offering shipping to a country, and "restricting" it as you say?

Yes there is, the first is just an omission in setting the cost, which is also the default operation, the second is an active choice not to allow bidders that have delivery addresses in certain countries and is used much less frequently by Ebay sellers.

Guest

Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2019 1:30 am Post subject:

Cupid wrote:

This is a different problem from that discussed (and refuted by Mario as you quote) earlier in this thread. Sellers have options to restrict where they are prepared to ship items, most however don't do so. When they do the issue can not be resolved by placing the bid via a different satellite site, the outcome can only be changed by changing your delivery address to be one that the seller is willing to ship to.

Thanks for your reply!

The thing is though, that I bid all the time on items from sellers that do not offer shipping to my primary address's country, and never had any problems.
Or is there a difference between not offering shipping to a country, and "restricting" it as you say?

Cupid

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 10:32 am Post subject:

Anonymous wrote:

"Item cannot be purchased. Item cannot be purchased. Seller does not provide shipping to the country or region of your primary shipping address."

This is a different problem from that discussed (and refuted by Mario as you quote) earlier in this thread. Sellers have options to restrict where they are prepared to ship items, most however don't do so. When they do the issue can not be resolved by placing the bid via a different satellite site, the outcome can only be changed by changing your delivery address to be one that the seller is willing to ship to.

There isn't a reliable way to check whether or not this restriction is in place, other than by placing a bid, because these restrictions can be imposed (or not) on a listing by listing basis if the seller so wishes, but you can usually assume that if you've had this issue with a seller once that they might well have set their default shipping options to restrict bidding in this way.

So you can either place test bids, or you can have many different Ebay accounts each with shipping addresses within the country where the auction was listed, even that isn't guaranteed to always work, there are a few (mostly Russian in my experience) sellers that refuse to ship to their own country, not that it causes an issue for me of course since I don't live there.

Guest

Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2019 3:28 am Post subject:

mario wrote:

Bart,

The same settings are used to add item to Gixen, and to place a bid. So if you can add item to Gixen, placing a bid will work.

Hi Mario,

Unfortunately this weekend the above has proven not true (for the first time, never happened before).
I could add the item to Gixen without any problem, but at the moment of truth my bid wasn't placed, the auction end notice email saying: "Item cannot be purchased. Item cannot be purchased. Seller does not provide shipping to the country or region of your primary shipping address."

Can you look into this?

Is there any way to tell beforehand if a bid is gonna work out or not? For the next US bid, just to be sure, I have changed my primary address to my US package forwarder's address that I usually use for US Ebay purchases. But since I'm usually using Gixen to bid on items from many different countries, this isn't really a neat solution.

Hope to hear from you Thanks!

Guest

Posted: Tue Sep 25, 2018 3:13 am Post subject:

mario wrote:

Bart,

The same settings are used to add item to Gixen, and to place a bid. So if you can add item to Gixen, placing a bid will work.

Thanks!

Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 11:16 am Post subject:

Ok thanks Mario.
I was wondering if I was supposed to change the mirror site in my settings to France if I was buying from there, but sounds like there is no advantage to do so and just leave them both as USA. I do speak French by the way, so was just wondering if there was an advantage to have the mirror set to the ebay site of the country where the item I want to buy is located. Would be a pain to change it depending on the item. So glad I can just leave it alone.

Gixen has served me very well to date, keep up the good work.
--Robert

mario

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 9:58 am Post subject:

No - for Canada it doesn't matter much whether you use ebay.com or ebay.ca. eBay policies are similar or the same, customer support is obviously in English in both countries, and timezones match as well.

You don't have to change anything. Do not change your target settings to Germany, Spain or Italy (even though you buy items from there), unless you want to practice speaking foreign languages with European eBay customer support.

rstl99

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 8:25 am Post subject: Target

Hi Mario,

I'm confused about the new Target feature announcement.
Currently the Target section of my settings has both Main and Mirror target sites set at default "United States", even though I live in Canada.

So I'm not really sure what to change the Main and Mirror target sites to, if anything. Do I have to change that every time I'm interested in an item in a country outside the USA?

Please clarify. Thank you.

mario

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 5:59 am Post subject:

Bart,

The same settings are used to add item to Gixen, and to place a bid. So if you can add item to Gixen, placing a bid will work.

Guest

Posted: Mon Sep 24, 2018 1:21 am Post subject:

Hi Mario,

Would making a change in this Target setting possibly bring up issues with bidding on an item from a seller who has allowed their ads to be only visible on, let's say, the .com version of the website?

I recall having had issues once or twice, where a bid could only be made through a specific local Ebay website.

Most bargains I find seem to be ads that are only visible on some local Ebay websites, which also might be the .com website for US sellers. I'm a bit afraid that when I set my target to my local .nl website, last minute bids might be blocked on US-only ads because coming from .nl?

This is "Target" setting on the Gixen settings page. Why does this matter, you may ask?

In most cases, e.g. if everything goes right, it doesn't - your bid is as good on ebay.com as it is on any of these sites, and most items are visible on all country sites.

However, if something goes wrong, e.g. you need to file a dispute with the seller or insurance claim, the country site determines which eBay support center you will contact, and what terms and insurance coverage applies. If you e.g. live in Germany and your native language is German, it is much more convenient to contact eBay's German support center than the US one.